Options are being considered for enhanced collaboration between the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Department of Veterans Affairs, which could include a co-located, joint-use facility in Charleston.

The two health care systems already engage in a considerable degree of collaboration: some 95 percent of the physicians working at Charleston's Johnson VA Medical Center also work at MUSC and exchange nearly $13 million in health services every year.

The two organizations are partners in a mutually supported biomedical research facility, the Thurmond/Gazes Biomedical Research Center.